I’m pretty impressed by the box office success of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, an unrecognizably loose adaptation of my favorite children’s book, which I had last month included in a list of movies that really ruined our childhood. Apparently I was completely wrong in that claim and the movie is supposedly “Pixar good.” Initially I had planned on boycotting the 3-D animated film, but I’m suddenly very much looking forward to seeing it sometime this week.
I’m also now kind of curious about Jennifer’s Body, which came in at an embarrassing fifth place and is now allegedly signaling the end of Megan Fox’s career. Never mind the fact that we film bloggers shouldn’t want this to happen because she’s been such great traffic-bait for us in the past (meaning she’s allowed some of us to get paid for this once in awhile). Is she really to blame for the bomb? Or, is it the Diablo Codyspeak? Or the marketing? Or, is this simply one of those films, like its ancestor, Heathers, that will take some time to find it’s cult audience — which will, by the looks of those rallying for the film, be primarily women?
Let’s see what the film blogs are saying about Jennifer’s Body’s seemed failure after the jump:
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Though I didn’t include it on my list of 80s movies that need TV series, I could actually see a show based on Heathers being pretty cool. No, I’m not pulling your dick. And no, I didn’t have a brain tumor for breakfast. I’d continue the quoting by saying this isn’t just a spoke in my menstrual cycle, but I don’t have one of those. What I do have is a nearly twenty-year obsession with the movie as well as an odd exception when it comes to the idea of adapting it to other media. Certainly I don’t want anyone remaking Heathers on the big screen, but I’d be first in line for a campy musical version, and I’d read a comic book based on it (the thing would have to be published by Archie Comics, obviously).
Of course, I don’t expect this newly announced series idea to be very good. Network television is no place for a show based on Heathers. Not even Fox can get away with what the thing should be like. It wouldn’t be Heathers without all the swearing. And it couldn’t be as dark as it must be, either. However, provided there were some smart minds behind the idea, it could work quite well as an HBO or Showtime program. With a tone somewhere between The Sopranos and Weeds. The way I’m expecting it to be, as long as it’s on commercial television, the show may as well be called Mean Girls instead. Which would be a great idea, actually, if Tina Fey was behind it.
So, yeah, Heathers: the TV Show could be very, but it won’t be, and I see what everyone’s damage is over this news. But don’t worry, if it does ever end up on the air, it’ll soon be off and just as forgotten as the shows Ferris Bueller, Dirty Dancing and My Big Fat Greek Life.
Check out some blog responses to the news — imagine them recited in a montage of lunchtime poll answers — after the jump:
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The true-story-based 21 comes off as an extremely interesting, though likely unintended concept: a gangster/crime film for nerds. In structure, it’s basically Little Caesar set in the world of card counting, which in fact isn’t illegal, yet in Vegas is viewed as being just as criminal as bootlegging was during Prohibition. There are a number of moments that exactly fit the mold of the crime genre and some moments that even seem specific to individual films (a short scenario involving new identities feels like a wink at a similar scene in Reservoir Dogs if you’re already thinking about gangster movies). But as interesting as the concept sounds, nerds just aren’t as entertaining as gangsters and blackjack and brains just isn’t as cool on screen as bank robberies and machine guns.
Coinciding with the crime genre structure are the conventions of the geek-gets-popular genre (I guess as social climbing stories, they’re basically the same thing). The story centers on an MIT student (Jim Sturges) who works on robotics in his spare time with his nerdy friends. He’s recruited into a group of mathletes, headed by a behind-the-scenes professor (Kevin Spacey), who spend their weekends in Las Vegas getting filthy rich by counting cards at blackjack tables and playing accordingly. Like Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls or Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar, the popularity and power takes control over the new recruit. But it’s a weird twist, because here the popular kids are actually ubernerds, which is fitting in the world dominated by Bill Gateses and Steve Jobses.
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